Drums for the Insane
by dnftotalwhovian
Summary: The Master and Moriarty together. Wait! Don't run away! This story is meant to be hilarious. The idea, the plot, the ship. But it's ultimately your choice. Do you seriously believe in the Masterarty? Or is it a joke to you? This is a story of strange love, normal love, popular ships and unusual ships. Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

Note to readers:

My past fanfiction started out with typos so I am using the same idea but starting anew. Besides, last time all I had the chance to write were about one hundred words, (because it was last night) so really, this isn't starting over. I plan to take this story far and make you approve of the Mariarty, my ship name for Moriarty+the Master!

Story:

He was always there watching over me from the stars. That's what he told me. That's what I believed up until now. But he LIED. He was never there and when he was it never meant a thing. Nothing. I thought that perhaps we were similar enough. He still left me. How could he be so selfish as to leave JIM MORIARTY for whatever else was out there. All he left was a note. All he said was that he had the universe to take over and didn't care what I thought. All he said was that he didn't damn care!

I swear I will rip out his hearts if he doesn't come back to me. I will BURN him worse than I ever could to Sherlock or anyone else for that matter.

Master, if you can hear me darling, I want you to came back. I am dying here without you. We had so many plans! So much to do! No. You just had to go and follow those insane drum poundings in your ears. I'm not saying I am any more sane than you are, but at least I have the sanity to continue US.

All I can do now is think back to our times together. Our first everything's and our last ones before you abandoned me.

This is just my start. I hope you like it so far! Should I keep going?


	2. Chapter 2

This morning I saw a light in the sky. It was a faint white glow, though I could swear there was a tinge of blue in it. Along with it came a wheezing sound. It sounded just like the Master had described it to me what seemed like ages ago. Could it be the Doctor? If it was, was the Master close behind? Questions overflowed inside of me, and a short laugh escaped my mouth.

"The Master? After all this time?" I said quietly as I backed away from the window of the fourteen story apartment building.

"After all this time!" I bellowed. The man in the apartment next door grunted and cursed. I only laughed harder. There was no way, NO WAY that he would come back now. How could he live with seeing me after a hmhm three years? No, I convinced myself, there was no Doctor coming, and no Master. It was all part of a wild hallucination I was having like the others. But I still couldn't help running down the stairs to see if a blue Police Box had landed outside.

I pounded down the stairs, pajamas and all, and burst open the door to the chilly wind. Outside, the streets were glazed with ice and deadly looking icicles hung from balconies long abandoned up above. There it was, just as the Master had described it. Though snow billowed up around it, I could still make out the words at the top. "Police Public Call Box" it said. This had to be it.

The Master had told me it's name. "The TARDIS," he said, "Time and Relative Dimension in Space."

He was telling me about the beautiful red, glowing paradox machine he had turned it into once. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with memories. His voice resounded throughout my head. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Images lit up in front of my eyes. His eyes that seemed to reflect the never-ending time vortex shown in front of me. I let out a short sniffle. I gulped. I screamed. I laughed, grinning with all of my teeth showing, my eyes wide.

I blinked a few times to get out of the trance I was in and tilted my head slightly to the right to observe the bow in front of me. The door opened, and my head quickly returned to an upright position. Now I squinted my eyes. A thick, grey fog spread from inside. I coughed a few times. A dark silhouette appeared.

"Hello," the figure said, "I'm the Doctor. Who might you be, and would you happen to know the date?"


	3. Chapter 3

My breathing quickened. It was him. It was the long brown jacket, tie, blue sonic screwdriver, and spiked brown haired Doctor. "The tenth," the Master had told me. "One of too many."

"You rascal!" (I don't know why I did this. It's so unlike me, but I guess those words just seemed to express me in that one moment…) I cried as I quickly stepped towards him, my hands itching to grasp his neck. Then I stopped. My hands lowered down to my sides and the edges of my lips curled up in a menacing manner. My nostrils flared as anger surged through me. Still, I couldn't kill him now, not like this.

Was it that I didn't like that he was an enemy of the Master, or was it that I didn't like him because he didn't kill the Master?

The Doctor looked at me, both eyebrows raised. "What?" He cried.

I stayed quiet, but was terribly urged to throw him to the ground and beat him up. Instead, I began thinking about how to convince him to bring the Master back to me or kill him in a fun, playing-mind-games way.

I chuckled softly. The Doctor looked at me with a more concerned, confused look. Then he opened his mouth wide and drew in breath quickly. His eyes grew larger; he shuffled back.

"Wait... Moriarty! I can't believe it!" He pulled his hair up. "I ended up in this realm again! Second time. Brilliant!" His excitement made anger grow inside of me. Why so happy. Why.

"Sherlock, where is he?" He asked.

He didn't even seem scared of me. All he cared about was how he traveled and Sherlock. Right. Why does everyone care so much about Sherlock!

"Dead." I said calmly.

Let the mind games begin. I knew perfectly well that he was still alive even though I had tried to convince him to die. He went back to John a few months ago. Maybe I could enact my revenge on him and the Doctor at once. That would be interesting, and it sounded like fun. Lots of fun.

The Doctor's face contorted and his eyebrows came together in the middle of his face. I could tell his lips were about to form another "what" because they made a distinct oooh shape. He cared about Sherlock. NO ONE cared about me.

"No! Impossible! But I made sure that he was able to get back here without being harmed -or his friends being harmed, so if I pro-. Oh." He looked at me and gulped, scratching the top of his head nervously. "Well. Anyways. There is no way. It's only been a year and it would change the course of history!"

This was going to be harder to deal with than I thought. Apparently he knew what was supposed to happen. What if I say it happened not long ago, I wondered. Then, maybe he wouldn't be as sure. Besides, what was that he said about helping Sherlock? The Master told me he came during a hitched ride on the TARDIS, and that the Doctor was there…. maybe it was the time the Doctor came a year ago? Yes. That would make sense. The Doctor said it was his second time here. Why didn't he tell me the Doctor was helping Sherlock? All he told me was that the Doctor harmed him. Did he want to protect Sherlock? I am doubting the Master more often these days, but I still convince myself that his love is, or was genuine. And true love is meant to be together.

"He died a month ago." I thought quickly. "Saving Irene." That was clever. I hope he falls for it.

"Oh that Irene can make a man do anything. Sherlock has a fondness for her, too." He shook his head slowly and let out a sigh. I had him tricked! Ha.

"Now when will you stop lying to me?" He looked up to me, smiling. "I know how you are, Moriarty. And you aren't going to harm Sherlock, or as a matter of fact, anyone. Not with me around."

Oh. Great. Just. Great.


	4. Chapter 4

And then something strange happened. The TARDIS door opened once more, the inside showing its vastness to me. The Master had described it so many times, but I swear I hadn't been prepared for this. An orange glow led to the labyrinth of controls, and there was a blue-ish light in the middle. Yellow circles coated the walls, and columns that reminded me of corals held up the main control room up. Anyways, enough with my amazement at the machine thing, the weird part was that a strong wind pulled me in, along with the Doctor.

"Whoah! That's strange…" The Doctor's voice was lost as the wind sucked us in with a loud whoosh. The doors slammed shut once we were inside. We were trapped. I was trapped with the Doctor. Ugh.

Then the TARDIS began taking off.

"No no no no no... " the Doctor murmured, fiddling wildly with the controls. "I can't believe it! I end up in this realm and the TARDIS starts doing weird things again! Come on!" He flung his arms up in despair, then returned to his work.

"Again?" I asked. How often did this sort of thing happen?

"Yes. Well… it doesn't happen like this every time, but I guess… I don't know. This thing has been malfunctioning since the whole paradox thing. I have this, uh, enemy Time Lord named the Master. I'll just tell you later."

He didn't know that the Master and I were together? This was an advantage! I chuckled softly, the Doctor's eyebrows coming together again after hearing me. He didn't look up, though. He was still frantically trying to control the TARDIS, pulling levers here and there.

What could I do with this? First, I decided I needed to hear his perspective on the Master and future traveling plans. Then, I'd have to convince him to let me come with him. No! that wouldn't work unless we were stuck outside my realm! I'd probably have to hitch a ride. How would I know where the Master was? Maybe I would ask him casually if he knew… Then how would I convince him to go there without hinting on our relationship? This was going to be hard.

A few minutes passed since we had taken off. The Doctor had given up, slumped back into a bench. His eyes stared into nothingness. His arms crossed over his chest, and his feet too. Noticing that I was looking at him, he straightened up and sighed.

"I'm sorry. I don't know if I can get you back. I'm so so sorry."

"So what have you boys been up to?" A voice sounded, higher pitched. It was a woman's voice, I realized. An annoyed tone of voice, too. I turned around, facing a ginger woman with her eyebrows up and tongue passing over her teeth.

"What do you want?" She asked rudely, rolling her eyes towards me.

By God this woman frightened me.


	5. Chapter 5

"Ah! Donna! Hello there." The Doctor pivoted in his All Stars to face her.

"This is Moriarty." He waved his arms toward me, tilting his head. Donna looked at me suspiciously. I smiled shyly.

"Wait. You mean like Sherlock's enemy?"

"Yes." I said before the Doctor could say anything. So I was famous... I wonder why. Donna walked towards me and stretched her hand out.

"Nice to finally meet you! I don't really care that you are like insane... I mean you are like on television. Now when do I get to meet Sherlock?" Another person who cared about Sherlock. Why was he so loved? At least she had been happy to meet me... Even though she called me insane (which I admit is true). What did she know about me anyways?

I felt the urge to step back away from her. She still scared me because of her outward manner and fearlessness of me. Well... I decided that she was ok because she seemed to care a bit about me, so I awkwardly shook her hand.

"Donna..." The Doctor started.

"Whoah there sunny boy, I can take care of myself. I don't need your protection from another _human_." Donna said. Why did she say human like she usually needed protection from other things? Well, I guess if the Doctor faces other aliens... Donna went with him? Were they together or married? Interesting. She was his partner? Oh, I was only making myself more confused.

Finally I decided to ask. "Are you with him?" I asked, glancing upwards at her with my head down. I was trying to be more intimidating. I didn't really like why she didn't care I was a madman or dangerous. She needs to feel more threatened by me, I decided.

Donna and the doctor faced each other and pointed fingers back and forth between them, shaking their heads.

"Oh no, we're not a couple." They said in unison.

"Just companions." Donna added, smiling.

"So what is going on then, Doctor, and how is Moriarty here?" The Doctor explained as best as he could, Donna pretending to understand and me just zoning out of the conversation as soon as I heard the words "paradox effect on the TARDIS Gallifreyan security and control of the sonic part of the levers."

"Where are we off to now?" Donna asked. This was my chance. I laughed maniacally. Yes, I was trying to catch their attention. They turned towards me, Donna not showing a trace of concern (she seemed rather happy that I was exhibiting actions of mental instability), while the Doctor gave me that eyebrows look that I was getting tired of by now.

"I was…" No. I couldn't do that.

All I could manage was,

"Master."

The Doctor stared at me in awe, wondering why I was curious or even remembered him talking about the Master. He didn't know a thing.

"Tell me where he is."

"Now." I sounded more threatening. I smiled at my little success. Then I realized just how stupid I had been.


	6. Chapter 6

The Doctor's eyebrows did that stupid annoying thing again, and he leaned in closer to me. Then he glanced back at Donna who returned his look with a shrug and decided to leave. She slowly walked out, arms crossed and feet shuffling. Now the Doctor and I could be alone… to discuss the issue.

"Well…" He began hesitantly, gathering up the courage to begin slowly pacing around me and tilting his head. It was as if some person was examining my every move, observing my every reaction. I sure didn't like the feel of it.

I smiled. A game it would be. Of course it's very unlike me to play this out straightforward. So all fun and games. Besides, I had to make up for that awful intro I had. Soooo awkward.

I chuckled. "You heard me, Doctor. And I suppose you know me a bit. So TELL me.. or we could play a little game I like to call Chase the Cheese." Yes, yes, I admit that is an awful name but it sounded slightly threatening. Didn't it? DIDN'T IT?

I suppose not. The Doctor near burst out laughing. He stopped, composed himself, and continued.

"What?"

"As I said, it is a game. I suppose you want that option, don't you? You don't want to tell me where he is because you KNOW we can conspire to be a dangerous duo."

"Actually… No. I can't tell you where he is because I don't actually know. I'm sorry, but why exactly do you need this information?"

"You'll soon know Doctor. But for now, let's play the game. Those lies of yours can't hold. You know where he is."

The Doctor thrust his hands out in innocence.

"I don't know!"

He continued with a calmer tone.

"Moriarty. Whatever this is, I know how your games work and I don't like it. I've told you the truth! What else am I supposed to do!"

That was it. That was all it took.

"No Doctor. You're NOT!" I stepped towards him, my teeth grinding one I stepped back and laughed. He stepped back, leaning his back on the controls. Maybe this wouldn't be as hard as it seemed.

Well, except for the fact that Donna heard the commotion and walked in silently. She snuck up behind me and struck me in the back of the head with a clang. It seemed to be something like a frying pan that hit me…

In my last few seconds of gloomy consciousness, I could make out Donna telling the Doctor, "You owe me for that one." She finished her phrase with a half-laugh half-sigh sort of thing. And I collapsed on the floor, the world around me a spinning whirlwind of black smoke. Well. It was really just a blackout but that seemed like a much more dramatic way of putting it.


	7. Chapter 7

I awoke on the metal floor of the TARDIS, the grating digging into my skin. I painfully peeled my skin off of it, afraid the skin might stay there if I didn't, and looked up at the Doctor dizzily. He tossed a glowing blue thing around in his hand, and I struggled to make out what it was. I think the Master told me something about it, but my mind is jumbled, the clang resounding in my head with an ear-piercing pain. I sat up. A small breath escaped me, and the Doctor took notice.

"Oh. You're up." He said, stuffing the blue object inside his suit pocket. My head hurt in that strange way that feels like your hair is weighing your head down, the feeling that your hair is soaking wet with pounds of water and your neck cranes down from the unexpectedly heavy weight of it. It was only getting worse. I cranked my neck left and right and then spun my head in a circular motion. I reached for the back of it, forgetting I was leaning on my elbows, and crumbled back down onto the ground. My mind was not in it's best shape. However…. that has done me well before. Ha.

"Well?" He asked. _Is he smiling?_ I questioned. _No. That's not a smile. Is it? _Could I think at all? FREAKING Donna.

"Well what?" I responded, trying my best to keep my voice intimidating and powerful. Of course that didn't happen. I croaked the words like some poor little… nevermind.

I tried again. "Well what?" Haha. It worked. I believe my eyes even did that are-you-kidding-me-thing! YES.

The Doctor glanced up before answering. Then his eyes slowly came back down to face me. The corner of his mouth pinched upwards.

"Why do you need to know where the Master is, and how do you know about him?" His tone was steady and calm but louder than before; more demanding. I knew I couldn't tell him what the Master and I had together because he would realize how powerful we were together. I thought as quickly as I could with my temporary thinking impairment… so what came out wasn't exactly what I had hoped for or planned for when this day would arrive, but I guess it was alright. You'll see what I mean when this all plays out.

"Bunnies love bunnies." I grinned as I said this, knowing it sounded incredibly outlandish to the Doctor, but also knowing exactly what it meant. The Master was a bunny, and so am I. According to many pictures I have seen of myself on google, people like to compare me to a bunny. Though I am not particularly fond of the comparison, it is quite intriguing and makes for some good riddles. And I love riddles.

The Doctor let out a single laugh, his upper body arching downwards. He glanced at me with an entertained smile on his face. He let his teeth show through his lips, a chain reaction slowly leading up to the crinkling of the corners of his eyes.

"Can you believe this?" he said, his hands outstretched, palms up. He shook his head and let out one more chuckle. I used this time to pull myself upwards, latching onto the rod that outlined the fencing around the main deck. My fingertips and knuckles turned pale as I mustered up all of the force I could to rock myself upwards into a shaky but standing position. I was grinning even more than the Doctor. Finally, I had decided on a plan. Somehow it came to me after that bunny quote, it just did. Oh, and you just wait, Doctor, my riddles will always win, no matter what timey-wimey tricks you try to pull on me, I. Will. Win.

I will find the Master.

By now I was laughing hysterically, and only after realizing the Doctor had stopped laughing a little while back did I do the same. Now we stood face to face (cue dramatic music), his eyebrows prepared for war, and my grin ready to fight. My grin is like that first shot fired from somewhere no one knows, that shot that catches people's attention to look around and check if they're safe. It's what causes that fear of unsafety and it's what arises suspicion. But the Doctor seemed unfazzled by my grin, his eyebrows fending off my weapon of mass destruction. Oooh. I like calling it that. Moriarty's grin = weapon of mass destruction. Yes. That's perfect. And so, thinking this thought, my grin became wider, my cheeks pinching and creases forming on my forehead from my eyebrows traveling upwards. The battle between eyebrows and grin had officially begun.

The staredown/battle lasted for about fifteen seconds (now you can stop the dramatic music). Suddenly we both became serious, and it was time for me to initiate the hardest part of my plan - talking.

The Doctor began before I could.

"Bunnies, then? A very interesting choice of words, I would say. Another riddle of yours I assume. Moriarty. What in the world are you trying to accomplish? It's my TARDIS, and you can't operate it yourself, so what is this plan that seems to make you so thrilled? What is this brilliant plan of yours?" He paced around me as he said this, his hands either on his hips or twiddling with his sonic screwdriver he recently took out of his pocket. My mind was going back to normal, -as normal as it ever will be anyway- for now I could remember the name of the device with the blue light. Sonic screwdriver. It is a fun pair of words to play out with your tongue.

I moved next. Suddenly our battle seems to have become something more like a game of chess. Thought out, strategic moves going back and forth between two sides. I suppose I have already used all of my pons and perhaps a rook and a night with the bunny quote and the staredown, and maybe I've already moved all of my pieces but my king and queen. But it's best to get this game wrapped up quick and easy, so I put out the queen next.

"The world is ending by the shore

you've done your share, can do no more

but too bad there's no going back

for bunny's out to find a snack

for when you left a lone red rose

with someone safe, you did suppose

there came the bunny, scooped her up

and now unless you do shut up

there'll be a bloody, bloody rose." I had memorized what the Master had said a long time ago, just before he left. He told me where he planned to go and what he planned to do. I didn't understand and he didn't explain, but I assumed it was something against the Doctor. I took the story he told me and wrote it down in riddle form so that I could have a chance of finding him if this really was something against the Doctor. I improved the last two lines right on the spot. Apparently it worked, for the Doctor's face drained in color to an unhealthy pale shade and his eyes dashed around the room.

Ha. I grinned. Ha.


	8. Chapter 8

Hello again my fellow whovians. It's past finals and classes and stress and time to write again, is it not? "Did you miss me?" Moriarty would say. And now I say it to you, my friends. Welcome back to my strange mind and twisted tales of evil and wonder. Read on, my loyal ones.

"Life. A simple word for an idea so large. An idea no one can grasp yet all of us experience every hour of our existence. How can we, as humans, put such a simple label on such an entity as life? How can we describe such vastness that which cannot be described? And yet this idea, this thing called life can end so abruptly. One shot from a gun. One look away from the road and your car is rubble, rubble with you in it. One blow of the sword. One stab of the dagger. That's all it takes to end such a precious wonder.

And yet is life so precious? Are some of us actually better off dead? Our existence not defying the future of this universe, not changing the meaning of what it's means to live? Yes I suppose the world is a better place without some people in it. Some bastards, or perhaps a few innocent, good-for-nothing souls. Their lives can end, Doctor, but we, we are the ones in charge. We are the ones who must keep living.

Think about how many lives you've had to give up to keep time from going askew. Lives you could have saved if it were not for the future. But those are the lives that had to end. Those are the lives that must end for the future to go on the way it must! Doctor. You understand some people must die. And you know that the future depends on their deaths. So accept it. Let Rose die. Let her die."

He looked up at me, a pale, worried face with eyes glazed over. But it wasn't like he was about to cry. It was a look of hopelessness. A look the Master has longed to put upon the face of the Doctor, and a look that makes me hopeful. For now I have what I need. I can make it to the Master.

I continued, "You knew Rose's fate. You knew this day would come. But as you say, time can be rewritten. I know you want to save her before the Master gets to her. Doctor, the time is now. He's coming. But you can't get to the parallel universe without me."

The Doctor scoffed. "How would you know how to get to a parallel universe if even I can't? Some brilliant trickster you must be Moriarty." He became serious. "You know I can't get there."

I grinned. "Yes you can Doctor." Ok I'll tell him. I'll fucking tell him. I have to at some point. He knows I know about the master so... FINE. "The Master taught me how. A time lord trick you don't know. So go ahead, save Rose, but you have to take me to the Master in return."

"If I don't..." He trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. I finished it for him. "Rose dies."


	9. Chapter 9

New note to readers! Important! Yes this ship is named Masterarty now because after ten billion years trying to decide what it would be this sounded least like Mary and Moriarty! So feel free to disregard the first note to readers! Thanks! Now please read on and try your best to ignore my constant comments. :)

Helping the Doctor save a loved one isn't pleasing to watch, but it's the only deal he'll probably agree to. His love for Rose seems to overpower his love for the future of the universe. I mean, when the Master and I join forces we'll be unstoppable. Apparently the Doctor is willing to take that risk. But now I understand. Before I would have said his love was a stupid distraction. Now that I love someone, I know what it's like. Well except my love is useful. Not risky for my future. Much more logical. OF COURSE.

The Doctor can't seem to decide. Unbelievable. UNBELIEVABLE. It's not an easy choice but I would expect the choice to be obvious. Unless he doesn't love this Rose person. But it seemed like it. I don't understand. This was supposed to work. NO. I can't doubt myself or the Master. It WILL work. Come on Doctor you're f-ing killing me. Decide. DECIDE. Finally I just yelled it, my eyes going wide as I said it. I have moments of insanity. Don't judge me. It's how I am.

The Doctor seemed to turn a paler shade (though I'm not sure how because he already looks dead). He didn't even react to my outburst. Something is wrong. Why is he thinking about this so hard. Could he really be considering not saving Rose? Shit I've been so stupid. It's not Rose he doesn't love, it's me he doesn't want to be controlled by.

Finally he decided. For a split second he looked up at me with such puppy like eyes I wanted to run away from everything and just leave him alone. But I stood there, pretending to be unfazzled by his depressed eyes. Eyes like those of animals in adoption commercials. No I can't think about those. Moriarty doesn't cry. Especially not now.

"Alright," he said in a whisper. "I'll try to help you find him."

"You will find him. Or else this doesn't happen. Or else Rose dies." I said, repeating the fact that Rose will die if he does nothing for effect. The more it hurts the better.

"I'll try." He wasn't going to say he would find him. I didn't like that. Why wasn't he sure?

"You will!" I yelled at him. He stood up and said, "I will" with confidence, though I knew that he was speaking of saving Rose. But it's the same thing anyway. I've won.


	10. Chapter 10

"We have to find Rose first. You know having the Master here will make it impossible to do, since he is the one who is fated to..." He trailed off, not wanting to say anything about the death of his beloved Rose Tyler. He looked up quickly. "I know a place we can start to look."

The TARDIS whooshed back to life as if agreeing. We were off.

"Alright. We're definitely out of your realm. How do we get to Rose? You said you knew."

I sighed and turned my eyes up in disgust, "Alright Doctor." I took a crumpled piece of paper out of my pajama pants pocket. I made sure I slept with a part of the Master every night. Ok that part is true but I actually grabbed the sheet of paper and stuffed it in my pocket before I left to go outside, hoping it would be the TARDIS. Sadly, I hadn't fucking considered changing or at least grabbing some decent clothes. I've been trying to act intimidating in pajamas. Shit.

I handed over the sheet. I stood there, waiting for him to make sense of the strange fumble of words on the page. The Doctor read the list out loud, shifting the controls as he listed.

"Ok then, set the date and time to all the way in the future to all the way in the past." He jumped over to some kind of roll of numbers -the date, I figured out- and spun it all he way around one way and back. It clicked as it rolled.

He looked back down at the sheet. "Um, switch vortex gel triple forcefield on," he said as he pulled down a huge lever. He scratched his head and kept reading.

His mouth opened to speak but he couldn't get out the words. His eyebrows came together. He looked up at me. "Use Sonic screwdriver to operate rig hop? How did the Master know to use a sonic screwdriver? He doesn't have one."

My eyes went wide. "The Master described how to do many things to me, all of which I didn't really understand. I just wrote them down."

The Doctor smiled, the type of smile you show when you're on the verge of laughing. "No wonder so much of this is misspelled."

He just had to didn't he. I was done with all of his talking. His annoying rambling on and on and on. I broke. "Just do all that stuff and be happy there is a way to save Rose!" I yelled.

He backed away, running into the controls. "Alright." He stayed incredibly quiet, pulling lever after lever and pressing button after button. He stopped abruptly.

"That wouldn't make any sense. He either got a hold of a sonic screwdriver somehow or..."

"Or what, Doctor?"

"Or he knew you'd come to me, he knew you'd strike a deal with me to go find him. But how?"

How?


	11. Chapter 11

The Doctor paced around the controls. "I suppose going to a different realm is a significant moment in time and would possibly be something the Master knew about instinctively as a time lord. But if he wanted to kill Rose, why would he warn me about it through Moriarty? Is he trying to lure me into a trap? That must be it. But... "

"He would have had to come to the TARDIS right about now and then go back in time to take advantage of Moriarty to get to me, right? (He did not take advantage of me. Fucking no.) Right now because now is the time to learn about everything. Just as I learn, he's learning. Then why wouldn't he just surprise me here? Why wouldn't he just meet up with me and try to kill Rose now? Right. It's the Master. He can't just mess with my life he had to mess with someone else's (mess with? Doesn't he love me?) And that is a genius way to do it. Messing with a different realm and creating the perfect loop that tosses me right into his hands. But that means he's here. He has to be."

The Doctor looked around frantically. Then he looked down suddenly. The paper. It was gone. The one with the instructions for how to get to a parallel universe.

I heard a faint laugh come from one side of the TARDIS. I turned around. The Doctor did the same. There he was. Starring the Doctor straight in the face. He smiled.

Suddenly, he waved his hand in front of us and it was clear he was holding the paper in his hand. Then he winked dramatically and quickly brought that hand down onto his opposite arm. He seemed to be wearing some sort of thick, black leather strap across it. His image faded away slowly. His darling face once again disappearing from my life. I wasn't sure how much more of this I could handle.

"A vortex manipulator!" The Doctor cried out, a frustrated voice halfway between a groan and a yell. His eyes grew wide and he reached for the back of his head with his left hand. He scratched it and looked up at me, eyebrows curved inwards and eyes full of confusion. He stared right at me.

"How did he get his hands on that?"

I didn't know what to say though it looked like he was waiting for me to answer. "Uh..." I started, my voice shaky as I was utterly confused. The Doctor massaged his temples violently, muttering "think" over and over, each time getting louder and his face becoming more and more red.

"Think, think, think, think, think!"

His hands flew off his face and opened, his fingers bending just slightly and hands shaking terribly hard. I backed away, not wanting to be hit when he flung his arms outwards. Finally, he jumped up. This jump scared me back even more. At this point I was leaning against the railing hoping it wouldn't break even though I was pushing so hard against it that it was digging into my ribs.

"Of course!" He cried out, "When Martha walked the Earth she used the vortex manipulator to get out of the Master's clasp. Afterwards, she joined UNIT, but the Master must have found out where UNIT was before he died. When he came back, he could have easily stolen it. No one's using it, and UNIT sees no reason to keep it better protected than the rest of their timey wimey things. Bam! The Master takes it."

"But he's only just come alive. He's weak. He's not as dangerous as I had thought... I didn't know what power he would have when he came back, if he came back, if all the rumors were true. That's why I was surprised you know the Master. Not just because, well, you are Moriarty and he's the Master, (um, what the hell did he mean by that?) but because I'd only heard rumors he was back. And you proved he was back. What I just saw before my eyes was proof!"

He grabbed my shoulders. "When you mentioned it I thought he would be more powerful, but I didn't really think about it. Now that I've seen him, I know he isn't that powerful." The Doctor laughed and patted me on the back (which was really weird). Then he stopped abruptly.

"Yet."

He paced around a bit more, letting the information sink in. His sudden jerk nearly sent me toppling off the edge of the railing (I could swear it was getting loose). He had remembered about the paper the Master had taken with him. His reaction was not like mine would have been. His reaction was far more logical. All he said was an explanation, nothing about Rose.

"Oh! That's how the Master found out how to get to a parallel universe. A loop in time." He smiled. "It's clear now. It all fits."

Sure. Yeah, uh no. I really don't understand.


End file.
